#TheTrendingHashtag

​Mr Darcy once said, “My good opinion, once lost, is lost forever”. This sentiment is not just to be confined to fine literature, unfortunately, this still rings true in modern society; perhaps even more so with global communication technologies being vast and instant. A bad reputation or a slur on your good name can do untold damage to an individual – but what about the damage to your brand?In recent months there have been some high profile social media faux pas, while these may provide a quick sensationalist flurry of excitement for the innocent bystander, such mistakes can make or break reputations, careers, marriages, business allegiances and ultimately your livelihood.

​Phil Neville was recently appointed the England Women’s Football Team Head Coach. Unfortunately, his new post was quickly overshadowed by the re-emergence of some historic and cringe-worthy tweets joking about domestic violence and stereotypical inaccuracies regarding gender roles. As tweets from 2012 went viral within hours of his appointment, Neville deleted his private twitter account. It is hard to escape from such gems as; “Morning men couple of hours of cricket B4 work sets me up for the day” swiftly followed by, “when I said morning men I thought the women would of [sic] been busy preparing breakfast/ getting kids ready/ making the beds- sorry morning women”. As if this wasn’t distasteful enough, Neville was further embarrassed by two other tweets being revisited to cause a stir, “U women of [sic] always wanted equality until it comes to paying the bills #hypocrites” and, “Relax I’m back chilled- just battered the wife!!! Feel better now!” This was allegedly referring to a game of table tennis, but these tweets are the last thing to promote a feeling of trust and honour with their new coach among the finest women footballers in England.

​Henry Bolton, the UKIP leader, was left in a sticky spot after his girlfriend, Jo Marney made a hideous messaging mistake when putting forward her views about Meghan Markle to a friend. Admittedly, these were disclosed by the ‘friend’ rather than via social media, but the point remains the same- if you don’t want anyone to be able to tweet about it, don’t write it down- some opinions are best not aired. I’m not promoting widespread censorship, but we all have a responsibility to not spread hatred and venom.

​Here is a little compilation of some of my favourite social media ‘moments’ of the rich or famous.

​Paris Hilton was arrested in Las Vegas in 2010 for possession of cocaine. The substance was discovered in a Chanel handbag that Hilton vehemently denied belonged to her, if only she had remembered that she tweeted a picture of herself holding the handbag that very morning, accompanied with the words, “Love my new Chanel purse I got today!” Yes Paris, you’re so busted.

You can't beat a good headline. Anthony Weiner makes the cover of the Daily News.

​2011 saw the hilariously named ‘Weinergate’. Anthony Weiner tweeted a picture of his, erm, ‘reproductive organ’ to all his twitter followers- he had intended to simply send it to a young woman in Seattle. Initially, Weiner tried to get himself out of trouble by saying his twitter account had been hacked but eventually admitted he had tweeted it in error- he had no choice but to resign.

​Charlie Sheen once tweeted his personal phone number to his entire twitter following, he was obviously inundated with calls and had to change his phone number- he claims he only intended to send it to Justin Beiber, this is one example of where I wish I knew the back story.

​2010- Mary J Blige excitedly tweeted that she was going to study at Harvard-pretty exciting stuff. Her bubble was burst when Harvard replied to her tweet by pointing out that she was only actually at the stage of having her application considered. This action caused a huge fan backlash against Harvard University, Blige hit back by tweeting, “Why is that people always try to understand estimate my intelligents? They should never do that!” No Mary, no they shouldn’t…

​It is not just celebrities and high-profile executives that make mistakes on social media, even some of the top global brands have fallen foul of appropriate social media campaigns.

Controversial Dove advert...

​​Dove (thankfully) put a premature end to one social media campaign that showed a black woman removing her brown top to transform into a white woman in a light-coloured top.The brand was condemned for the overtly racist overtones during this campaign and had to apologise for how very wrong they got this- The Nivea brand also got their fingers burned with a similar campaign on Facebook that stated, “white is purity”. ​How could Unilever and Beiersdorf Global AG get things so wrong, and how on earth did these campaigns even get off the drawing board in the first marketing meeting?​

It takes seconds to post, how long to build the respect for your brand back?

​Wendy’s fast food chain tweeted a Pepe the frog meme- innocuous at first glance, until people remembered the character had been co opted by the White Supremacist movement in the 2016 election. Wendy’s responded by taking the tweet down almost immediately, however, as viewers of the tweet had had the foresight to take a screen shot, the unwise decision to post it is preserved for eternity.

​So what is the moral of the story?

Most importantly, double check everything, no, triple check everything- ‘if in doubt, leave it out’ would be an appropriate mantra here.Ensure your security is as robust as you can manage- opt for verifying your social media accounts, use 2 factor authentications, train employees to understand the impact of anything they may post and never use a post it note in the office with your log in details on- you never know just how hilarious your work colleagues may think they are.Try to avoid politics- Unless you are an elected politician of course. Politics is a dangerous area, if you appear insensitive you will be condemned for it.If you make a mistake, the best course is to just come clean and learn from it. Try to make amends and never get complacent about public forgiveness. People have long memories and retweets and screen shots have even longer ones.

To err is human; to forgive, divine.(Alexander Pope. 1688–1744. An Essay on Criticism)

The best way to steer clear of the minefield of social media etiquette and expectations is to hire a professional to promote your brand on your behalf. By hiring a content curator and social media manager you can confidently put your trust in a professional who has the experience and industry awareness of the best way to handle your account.

​If you think your company’s social media profiles could benefit from some expert advice and management, please do get in touch with us. Let us take you forward.

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Keeping the art of pursuasive writing alive.

Well, it's that time of year again, when writers young and old turn their hand to persuasive writing. Of course some people are using this skill everyday. SEO content and copywriters spend hours writing to persuade website visitors to become new and loyal customers. Some are incredibly good at it, others are particularly shoddy. However, at least there are people writing with gusto and enthusiasm. Sadly, for the rest of society, who never have to write a letter or memo, this enthusiasm for writing is often absent.

Children sit in classrooms trying to avoid writing at all costs; it is surprising how many trips to the loo, or times you need to sharpen a pencil, can occur in half an hour. But this reluctance to write seems to be forgotten about when they hear the words, " time to write your letter to Santa". Then it would seem there are no holds barred. Out come the gel pens and illustrations. Some young writers put the early monastic illumated manuscripts to shame with the amount of 'bling' they manage to cram on the page. This is good and encouraging as a writer to see. This shows that people know the potential impact their prose ( or early attempts at marketing) can have on the intended audience. For some, this skill remains with into adulthood.

This is something a friend of mine recently posted as a letter to Santa on her facebook page. This is a perfect example of how the childhood protocol of writing to Santa remains in our psyche well into adulthood.

As a piece of persuasive writing, which is exactly what SEO copywriting is, this ticks all the boxes;

It clearly addresses the intented audience, (Dear Santa).

The piece then outlines the features; in this case that she has been a good girl.

Then the intention of the writer, or what she hopes to achieve, ( A pair of scarily high heels)

concluding with the benefits for everyone; that we won't hear her swear for at least a week.

Perfect, short, crisp, clear marketing.

These are important criteria for writing persuasive copy.There is no ambiguity as to the purpose of this writing. I have no doubt the elves are onto this request as I write.

A letter to Santa may be the only writing some kids do for pleasure, which in itself is a shame. However, a letter to Santa is a fantastic early steeping stone to writing persuasively. It becomes an instinct to understand the writing template necessary to acheive satisfaction from the intented audience. As writers mature, this skill can be finely tuned to empower the writer to become a master, or mistress, of persuasion.

Poor grammar, portmanteau or just evolution?

This is just something I can't get my head round. When you search on-line (or should that be online or on line?) there is just no consistency in how words seem to be formed. I find this an awkward position to be in as a Copywriter / Copy Writer. You see in theory, copywriter should be two words, copy and writer. Let me explain. A writer of fiction is a fiction writer, a writer of crime stories is a crime writer, a person that teaches in a school is a school teacher. Then the waters get muddied by other occupations such as hairdresser, bricklayer and barmaid. All of these occupations were once separate words. So shouldn't a writer of copy be a Copy Writer?There is a definite split in the on-line community. This is a nightmare for the purposes of SEO content and copywriting / copy writing; by using different conventions you are faced with how to ensure both versions get picked up by the search engines. If you use both versions in one text it becomes confusing for the reader as the piece lacks consistency and quality, if you only use one version you are potentially missing out on all the potential clients who are searching for the other version. How has this happened? I think there are three possible reasons for this;

Poor grammar. It is a possibility that, like so many other writing conventions, people have forgotten how words fit together to make meaning. 'Copy' as a word class is a noun in this instance as it is being used to describe the name of a type of internet text. The word 'writer' is also a noun, therefore, 'copy writer' is grammatically known as a noun-noun collocation. Two words that sit side by side for meaning.

Portmanteau; A possible explanation is that the two nouns of 'copy' and 'writing' have been blended into one word to create a single word, similar to the creation of words such as 'bootylicious', 'mockney' 'mankini' and 'neither'. However, it doesn't sound like two words becoming one new one so I feel this is the less likely option.

Evolution; English has changed throughout the history of mankind. New influences from different cultures and especially the media and entertainment business means that people are exposed to all types of grammars, pronunciations and colloquialisms. Perhaps the need for speed while communicating so we can all move on to the next new thing has meant no-one is really bothered if two words become one, whether a hyphen gets left out, or a superfluous one gets put in. Rules change, people break rules and new language is created and it just happens.

So with this quandary of sticking to my noun noun collocation or moving on with the times, I shall ponder whether I am a Copy Writer or a Copywriter.